Systems and methods for implementing multi-application tabs and tab sets

ABSTRACT

A sharing model enables users to easily and conveniently create and share standard and custom database objects, and applications, among users or groups of users. The sharing model includes systems and methods that allow users to conveniently create and customize tabs and tab sets that define relationships between custom objects and fields, standard objects and fields, and applications. A tab visually represents a user interface into an element of an application or into a database object. Selection of a tab provides a user access to the object or element of the application represented by the tab. A tab set is a group of related tabs that work as a unit to provide application functionality. New tabs and tab sets may be defined and tab set views may be customized so that an end user can easily and conveniently switch between the various objects and application elements represented by the displayed tabs and tab set views.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/831,072 (Atty Docket No. 021735-001110US) filed Jul. 6, 2010 which isa continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/075,546, (AttyDocket No. 021735-001100US) filed Mar. 8, 2005, the contents of whichare hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

REFERENCE TO A “SEQUENCE LISTING,” A TABLE, OR A COMPUTER PROGRAMLISTING APPENDIX SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISK

NOT APPLICABLE

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to databases, and moreparticularly to systems and methods for creating and displaying customtab and tab set objects for use in a multi-tenant and/ormulti-application database system.

In multi-tenant database systems, such as the salesforce.com service, amulti-tenant architecture is used wherein customer organizations (i.e.,tenants) share applications and data, and database resources in onelogical database. The database tables themselves are typically shared.For example, each entity in the data model typically contains anorganization_id column that distinguishes rows for each tenant. Allqueries and data manipulation in the context of a tenant filter on this(indexed) organization_id column to ensure proper security and theappearance of virtual private databases. In the salesforce.com system,for example, this strategy is used to expose standard entities such asAccount, Contact, Lead, and Opportunity entities to customers.

However, customers may wish to add their own custom objects andapplications to the system in addition to the standard objects andstandard applications already provided. In a traditional client/serverapplication, where the customer has its own physical database, addingcustom objects is typically done via DDL (data definition language)against that database to create new physical schema—tables and columns.In an online multi-tenant database system, such as the salesforce.comservice, this approach may be untenable for various reasons. Forexample, for a database system with a large population of tenants (e.g.,on the order of 1,000 or 10,000 or more tenants), the union of alldesired schema would overwhelm the underlying data dictionary catalog(e.g., Oracle dictionary). Additionally, the maintenance of all of theseschema objects would be a nearly impossible burden for DBAs (databaseadministrators). Further, current relational databases do not supportonline DDL (in a highly concurrent transactional system) well enough fororganizations to remain logically independent. Specifically, thecreation of schema by one organization could lock an application for allother customers causing unacceptable delays.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/817,161, entitled “Custom Entitiesand Fields in a Multi-Tenant Database System” filed on Apr. 2, 2004,which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety, disclosessystems and methods for creating and customizing objects such asentities and fields. The systems and methods presented therein offer aflexible approach to storing variable schema data in a fixed physicalschema so as to overcome the above and other problems.

However, in addition to providing the ability to create custom databaseobjects such as entities and fields, it would be desirable to provide asharing model that allows users to easily and conveniently share suchstandard and custom objects and applications among users or groups ofusers. The sharing model should allow users to create custom views thatprovide user access to various objects and application elements. Suchsharing model should also provide individual users the ability tocustomize individual views of the model so as to provide a moreconvenient, user-friendly database and application user interfaceenvironment to the user.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a novel sharing model that enables usersto easily and conveniently create and share standard and custom databaseobjects, and applications, among users or groups of users.

According to the present invention, the sharing model provides systemsand methods that allow users to create and customize tabs and tab setsthat define relationships between custom objects and fields, standardobjects and fields, and applications. A tab visually represents a userinterface into an element of an application or into a database object.Selection of a tab provides a user access to the object or element ofthe application represented by the tab. A tab set is a group of relatedtabs that work as a unit to provide application functionality. New tabsand tab sets may be defined and tab set views may be customized so thatan end user can easily and conveniently switch between the variousobjects and application elements represented by the displayed tabs andtab set views. In this manner, tabs and tab sets may be used as a meansfor a user to switch between objects and between applications in amultiple application environment, such as an on-demand web-based hostedapplication environment. Further, using profiles, a creator of a tab setor other user with appropriate permission may define which users may seeand use a tab set definition, and therefore which users are allowedaccess to the custom objects and applications to which tabs in the tabset definition provide access.

Reference to the remaining portions of the specification, including thedrawings and claims, will realize other features and advantages of thepresent invention. Further features and advantages of the presentinvention, as well as the structure and operation of various embodimentsof the present invention, are described in detail below with respect tothe accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numbersindicate identical or functionally similar elements.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an environment wherein a multi-tenant database systemmight be used.

FIG. 2 illustrates elements of FIG. 1 and various interconnections inmore detail.

FIG. 3 is a user interface (UI) view of a standard tab set definitionprovided by a host system according to one embodiment.

FIG. 4 illustrates various aspects of an example UI including tab setsaccording to one embodiment.

FIG. 5 shows an example of an “All Tabs” page that supports differentmodes of viewing tabs according to one aspect.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a page that provides users with thecapability to fully customize each tab set, specifying which tabs go inwhich tab set, and the order of those tabs according to one aspect.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a tab set list view page that allows a userto create and customize tab sets according to one aspect.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a first tab set creation wizard pageaccording to one aspect.

FIG. 9 shows an example of a second tab set creation wizard page thatallows a user to provide a custom logo, according to one aspect.

FIG. 10 shows an example of a third tab set creation wizard page thatallows a user to specify which tabs belong in the new tab set, and theorder they are to be displayed, according to one aspect.

FIG. 11 shows an example of a fourth wizard page that allows a user tospecify the tab set's visibility, according to one aspect.

FIG. 12 shows an example of a tab set detail page that shows the detailsfor an existing tab set according to one aspect.

FIG. 13 shows an example of a page presented when a user selects theDelete action according to one aspect.

FIG. 14 shows an example of a tab list view page that allows a user tocreate and customize tabs according to one aspect.

FIG. 15 shows an example of a first tab creation wizard page accordingto one aspect.

FIG. 16 shows an example of a second tab creation wizard page accordingto one aspect.

FIG. 17 shows an example of a wizard page including an additional stepfor the New action for both Custom Object Tabs and Web Tabs.

FIG. 18 shows an example of a Profile Detail Page showing details of theselections as were made in the Profile Edit Page shown in FIG. 19.

FIG. 19 shows an example of a Profile Edit page according to one aspect.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 illustrates an environment wherein a multi-tenant database systemmight be used. As illustrated in FIG. 1 (and in more detail in FIG. 2)any user systems 12 might interact via a network 14 with a multi-tenantdatabase system (MTS) 16. The users of those user systems 12 might beusers in differing capacities and the capacity of a particular usersystem 12 might be entirely determined by permissions for the currentuser. For example, where a salesperson is using a particular user system12 to interact with MTS 16, that user system has the capacities allottedto that salesperson. However, while an administrator is using that usersystem to interact with MTS 16, that user system has the capacitiesallotted to that administrator. Thus, different users will havedifferent capabilities with regard to accessing and modifyingapplication and database information, including tab and tab setdefinition and profile information, depending on a user's permissionlevel.

Network 14 can be a LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network),wireless network, point-to-point network, star network, token ringnetwork, hub network, or other configuration. As the most common type ofnetwork in current use is a TCP/IP (Transfer Control Protocol andInternet Protocol) network such as the global internetwork of networksoften referred to as the “Internet” with a capital “I,” that will beused in many of the examples herein. However, it should be understoodthat the networks that the present invention might use are not solimited, although TCP/IP is the currently preferred protocol.

User systems 12 might communicate with MTS 16 using TCP/IP and, at ahigher network level, use other common Internet protocols tocommunicate, such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. As an example, where HTTPis used, user system 12 might include an HTTP client commonly referredto as a “browser” for sending and receiving HTTP messages from an HTTPserver at MTS 16. Such HTTP server might be implemented as the solenetwork interface between MTS 16 and network 14, but other techniquesmight be used as well or instead. In some implementations, the interfacebetween MTS 16 and network 14 includes load sharing functionality, suchas round-robin HTTP request distributors to balance loads and distributeincoming HTTP requests evenly over a plurality of servers. Preferably,each of the plurality of servers has access to the MTS's data, at leastas for the users that are accessing that server.

In preferred aspects, the system shown in FIG. 1 implements a web-basedcustomer relationship management (CRM) system. For example, in oneaspect, MTS 16 can include application servers configured to implementand execute CRM software applications as well as provide related data,code, forms, web pages and other information to and from user systems 12and to store to, and retrieve from, a database system related data,objects and web page content. With a multi-tenant system, tenant data ispreferably arranged so that data of one tenant is kept separate fromthat of other tenants so that one tenant does not have access toanother's data, unless such data is expressly shared. It should,however, be appreciated that system 16 can also implement applicationsother than, or in addition to, a CRM application. For example, system 16may provide tenant access to multiple hosted applications including aCRM application.

One arrangement for elements of MTS 16 is shown in FIG. 1, including anetwork interface 20, storage 22 for tenant data, storage 24 for systemdata accessible to MTS 16 and possibly multiple tenants, program code 26for implementing various functions of MTS 16, and a process space 28 forexecuting MTS system processes and tenant-specific processes, such asrunning applications as part of an application hosting service.

Several elements in the system shown in FIG. 1 include conventional,well-known elements that need not be explained in detail here. Forexample, each user system 12 could include a desktop personal computer,workstation, laptop, PDA, cell phone, or any WAP-enabled device or anyother computing device capable of interfacing directly or indirectly tothe Internet or other network connection. User system 12 typically runsan HTTP client, e.g., a browsing program, such as Microsoft's InternetExplorer™ browser, Netscape's Navigator™ browser, Opera's browser, or aWAP-enabled browser in the case of a cell phone, PDA or other wirelessdevice, or the like, allowing a user (e.g., subscriber of a CRM system)of user system 12 to access, process and view information, pages andapplications available to it from MTS 16 over network 14. Each usersystem 12 also typically includes one or more user interface devices,such as a keyboard, a mouse, touch screen, pen or the like, forinteracting with a graphical user interface (GUI) provided by thebrowser on a display (e.g., monitor screen, LCD display, etc.) inconjunction with pages, forms, applications and other informationprovided by MTS 16 or other systems or servers. For example, the userinterface device can be used to select tabs and tab sets and otherwiseallow a user to interact with the various GUI pages as described herein.

As discussed above, the present invention is suitable for use with theInternet, which refers to a specific global internetwork of networks.However, it should be understood that other networks can be used insteadof the Internet, such as an intranet, an extranet, a virtual privatenetwork (VPN), a non-TCP/IP based network, any LAN or WAN or the like.

According to one embodiment, each user system 12 and all of itscomponents are operator configurable using applications, such as abrowser, including computer code run using a central processing unitsuch as an Intel Pentium processor or the like. Similarly, MTS 16 (andadditional instances of MTS's, where more than one is present) and allof their components might be operator configurable using application(s)including computer code run using a central processing unit such as anIntel Pentium processor or the like, or multiple processor units.Computer code for operating and configuring MTS 16 to intercommunicateand to process web pages, applications and other data and media contentas described herein is preferably downloaded and stored on a hard disk,but the entire program code, or portions thereof, may also be stored inany other volatile or non-volatile memory medium or device as is wellknown, such as a ROM or RAM, or provided on any media capable of storingprogram code, such as a compact disk (CD) medium, digital versatile disk(DVD) medium, a floppy disk, and the like. Additionally, the entireprogram code, or portions thereof, may be transmitted and downloadedfrom a software source, e.g., over the Internet, or from another server,as is well known, or transmitted over any other conventional networkconnection as is well known (e.g., extranet, VPN, LAN, etc.) using anycommunication medium and protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, Ethernet,etc.) as are well known. It will also be appreciated that computer codefor implementing aspects of the present invention can be implemented inany programming language that can be executed on a server or serversystem such as, for example, in C, C++, HTML, any other markup language,Java, JavaScript, any other scripting language such as VBScript, andmany other programming languages as are well known.

According to one embodiment, each MTS 16 is configured to provide webpages, forms, applications, data and media content to user systems 12 tosupport the access by user systems 12 as tenants of MTS 16. As such, MTS16 provides security mechanisms to keep each tenant's data separateunless the data is shared. If more than one MTS is used, they may belocated in close proximity to one another (e.g., in a server farmlocated in a single building or campus), or they may be distributed atlocations remote from one another (e.g., one or more servers located incity A and one or more servers located in city B). As used herein, eachMTS could include one or more logically and/or physically connectedservers distributed locally or across one or more geographic locations.Additionally, the term “server” is meant to include a computer system,including processing hardware and process space(s), and an associatedstorage system and database application (e.g., OODBMS or RDBMS) as iswell known in the art. It should also be understood that “server system”and “server” are often used interchangeably herein. Similarly, thedatabases described herein can be implemented as single databases, adistributed database, a collection of distributed databases, a databasewith redundant online or offline backups or other redundancies, etc.,and might include a distributed database or storage network andassociated processing intelligence.

FIG. 2 illustrates elements of MTS 16 and various interconnections inmore detail. In this example, the network interface is implemented asone or more HTTP application servers 100. Also shown is system processspace 102 including individual tenant process spaces 104, a systemdatabase 106, tenant database(s) 108 and a tenant management processspace 110. Tenant database 108 might be divided into individual tenantstorage areas 112, which can be either a physical arrangement or alogical arrangement. Within each tenant storage area 112, user storage114 might similarly be allocated for each user.

It should also be understood that each application server 100 may becommunicably coupled to database systems, e.g., system database 106 andtenant database(s) 108, via a different network connection. For example,one server 100 ₁ might be coupled via the Internet 14, another server100 _(N-1) might be coupled via a direct network link, and anotherserver 100 _(N) might be coupled by yet a different network connection.Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) are preferredprotocols for communicating between servers 100 and the database system,however, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that othertransport protocols may be used to optimize the system depending on thenetwork interconnect used.

In preferred aspects, each application server 100 is configured tohandle requests for any user/organization. Because it is desirable to beable to add and remove application servers from the server pool at anytime for any reason, there is preferably no server affinity for a userand/or organization to a specific application server 100. In oneembodiment, therefore, an interface system (not shown) implementing aload balancing function (e.g., an F5 Big-IP load balancer) iscommunicably coupled between the servers 100 and the user systems 12 todistribute requests to the servers 100. In one aspect, the load balanceruses a least connections algorithm to route user requests to the servers100. Other examples of load balancing algorithms, such as round robinand observed response time, also can be used. For example, in certainaspects, three consecutive requests from the same user could hit threedifferent servers, and three requests from different users could hit thesame server. In this manner, MTS 16 is multi-tenant, wherein MTS 16handles storage of, and access to, different objects, data andapplications across disparate users and organizations.

As an example of storage, one tenant might be a company that employs asales force where each salesperson uses MTS 16 to manage their salesprocess. Thus, a user might maintain contact data, leads data, customerfollow-up data, performance data, goals and progress data, etc., allapplicable to that user's personal sales process (e.g., in tenantdatabase 108). In the preferred MTS arrangement, since all of this dataand the applications to access, view, modify, report, transmit,calculate, etc., can be maintained and accessed by a user system havingnothing more than network access, the user can manage his or her salesefforts and cycles from any of many different user systems. For example,if a salesperson is visiting a customer and the customer has Internetaccess in their lobby, the salesperson can obtain critical updates as tothat customer while waiting for the customer to arrive in the lobby.

While each user ‘s sales data might be separate from other users’ salesdata regardless of the employers of each user, some data might beorganization-wide data shared or accessible by a plurality of users orall of the sales force for a given organization that is a tenant. Thus,there might be some data structures managed by MTS 16 that are allocatedat the tenant level while other data structures might be managed at theuser level. Because an MTS might support multiple tenants includingpossible competitors, the MTS should have security protocols that keepdata, applications and application use separate. Also, because manytenants will opt for access to an MTS rather than maintain their ownsystem, redundancy, up-time and backup are more critical functions andneed to be implemented in the MTS.

In addition to user-specific data and tenant-specific data, MTS 16 mightalso maintain system level data usable by multiple tenants or otherdata. Such system level data might include industry reports, news,postings, and the like that are sharable among tenants.

In certain aspects, client systems 12 communicate with applicationservers 100 to request and update system-level and tenant-level datafrom MTS 16 that may require one or more queries to database system 106and/or database system 108. MTS 16 (e.g., an application server 100 inMTS 16) generates automatically one or more SQL statements (the SQLquery) designed to access the desired information.

Each database can generally be viewed as a collection of objects, suchas a set of logical tables, containing data fitted into predefinedcategories. A “table” is one representation of a data object, and isused herein to simplify the conceptual description of objects and customobjects according to the present invention. It should be understood that“table” and “object” may be used interchangeably herein. Each tablegenerally contains one or more data categories logically arranged ascolumns or fields in a viewable schema. Each row or record of a tablecontains an instance of data for each category defined by the fields.For example, a CRM database may include a table that describes acustomer with fields for basic contact information such as name,address, phone number, fax number, etc. Another table might describe apurchase order, including fields for information such as customer,product, sale price, date, etc. In some multi-tenant database systems,standard entity tables might be provided for use by all tenants. For CRMdatabase applications, such standard entities might include tables forAccount, Contact, Lead and Opportunity data, each containing pre-definedfields.

According to one aspect, a user can design their own custom applicationsincluding custom objects, custom tabs, custom fields, and custom pagelayouts. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/817,161, entitled “CustomEntities and Fields in a Multi-Tenant Database System” filed on Apr. 2,2004, previously incorporated by reference in its entirety, disclosessystems and methods for creating and customizing objects such asentities and fields. Using the techniques of the present invention, tabsand tab sets can be created and customized to define relationshipsbetween custom objects and fields, standard objects and fields, andapplications and to track related data.

Custom Tabs and Tab sets

According to the present invention, in general, a tab represents a userinterface into an element of an application or into a database object.Selection of a tab provides a user access to the object or element ofthe application represented by the tab. A tab set is a group of relatedtabs that work as a unit to provide application functionality. Thepresent invention allows for new tabs and tab sets to be defined and tabset views to be customized so that an end user can easily andconveniently switch between the various objects and application elementsrepresented by the displayed tabs and tab sets. In one aspect, forexample, tabs and tab sets may be used as a means to switch betweenapplications in a multiple application environment, such as an on-demandweb-based hosted application environment.

In one embodiment, a tab set includes a name, a logo, and an orderedlist of tabs. A tab set is typically viewed in a graphical userinterface (GUI) environment, e.g., using a browser application runningon a user's computer system. For example, FIG. 3 illustrates an exampleof a portion of a GUI view of a tab set. As shown in FIG. 3, thecurrently selected tab set 100 includes a logo 110 and a tab setselector 120, which preferably is only included when multiple tab setsare available for selection by a user. The tab set selector 120 incertain aspects includes a dropdown list, or picklist, that is availablewhen multiple tab sets are provided and that is used to switch betweenthe available sets of tabs. When a user changes the selection, thedisplayed tabs, order of tabs and “new xxx” bar are changed based on theselected tab set definition.

The tab set shown in FIG. 3 represents a standard tab set definitionprovided by a host system, e.g., MTS 16. Standard tab sets arepre-defined sets of tabs, e.g., imported from a source that provides acapability (e.g., templating capability) that determines which tabs, tabsets and data a tenant or user is initially provisioned with. Oneexample of standard tab sets are provided by the salesforce.com websitethrough its subscription CRM service. Using these standard tab sets,users are provided access to standard tables or entities such asAccount, Contact, Lead and Opportunity entities. For example, tabsrepresenting the salesforce.com Account, Contact, Lead and Opportunityentities and others are shown in FIG. 3. As another example,salesforce.com also provides the ability to create custom entities aswell as custom fields for standard entities. Using the presentinvention, a user can create a tab set including tabs representingcustom entities and fields.

According to one aspect, a user may create custom tab sets and customtabs. Preferably only administrator level users are provided with tabset creation functionality based on their stored permissions.Additionally, users may customize their view of tab sets, including theorder of displayed tabs and which tabs in a tab set are displayed. Toallow users to conveniently organize their tabs, each tab may appear inany and all tab sets if desired. Preferably, any user can edit tabcombination and order, but cannot rename or replace a logo; tab setnaming and logo selection are preferably only administrator levelfunctions. For example, administrators may create new tab sets andcustomize existing tab sets. For all tab sets, an administrator canspecify which tabs are included, and the order that the tabs should bedisplayed. For organization-specific tab sets, an administrator can alsospecify the name and provide an optional logo. For standard tab setsprovided by the host system, e.g., tab sets provided by salesforce.com,such as Salesforce.com and Supportforce.com tab sets, an administratorpreferably cannot change the name or logo, nor can the administratordelete the standard tab set. Preferably, any user can fully customizetheir view of all the tab sets they have permission to view. For userswho only have access to a single tab set, in one aspect these users willnot see the tab set selector 120. As will be discussed below, the tabs auser can see are based on the user's permission level. A profile foreach tab set allows an administrator level user to set the profile levelviewability of tabs and tab sets, e.g., so that groups of users atcertain permission levels may be restricted from viewing certain tabs ortab sets, and therefore also may be restricted from accessing or viewingcertain objects and applications referenced by the restricted tabs ortab sets.

Thus, in one aspect, a tab set can be thought of as a filter that isoverlaid on top of an existing profile-level tab visibility definition.An administrator sets the default tabs that are included in each tab setfilter, but each user can override as they like—the only thing theypreferably cannot change is the tab set name and logo. The net result isthat tab sets are quite lightweight and flexible. A particular meaningto a tab set is not enforced; each user can generally use tab sets asthey wish.

Tab Set User Interface

FIG. 4 illustrates various aspects of an example UI including tab setsaccording to one embodiment. As shown in FIG. 4, a portion of the screen(e.g., the upper-right-hand corner of each screen where Setup, Help andTraining, Logout and other links are typically provided) may be shadedor otherwise prominently displayed to indicate that this section applies(e.g., is persistent) across all applications. For those users that havepermission to view more than one tab set, the tab set selector 120 isalso shown in this portion. As shown, the selector 120 includes an “S”logo, which in this example is used to brand the salesforce.comon-demand operating system, and a picklist 122, listing each of the tabsets the user has permission to view. When the user selects a tab setfrom the picklist 122, as shown in FIG. 4 b, the tab set's logo isprominently displayed, e.g., in the upper-left-hand corner of the pageas shown. If the tab set is not supplied by the host system, e.g., inthis example the host is salesforce.com, and the customer provides alogo (i.e., the tab set does not use a default host logo), then anadditional host-supplied graphic, such as a “powered by Customforce.com”graphic, may be displayed next to the logon on the right-hand-side ofthe banner, as shown in FIG. 4 c.

The tabs (except the Home tab) are replaced with the selected tab set'stabs, in the order specified by the stored tab set definition. Bydefault, the Home tab is displayed as the current tab. The “new” bar isalso replaced with a list of links for creating objects related to thoseobjects referenced by the tabs in the selected tab set. For example, asshown in FIG. 4 d, if the tab set includes the following tabs: Zoos andMonkeys, then the “new” bar would have the following: New Zoo, NewMonkey and Recycle Bin. The order of links in the “new” bar preferablymatches the order of tabs in the tab set, but it is not necessary as canbe seen in FIG. 4 c.

In one aspect, to help users understand the tab set selector 120, whenthe mouse hovers over either the “S” logo or the picklist 122, a tooltip will be displayed explaining the concept of tab sets.

If the user creates a new object or views an existing object, and thatobject is not referenced in the selected tab set, then the behavior ofthe system is preferably unaltered, e.g., the same as that which occursfor viewing or creating new objects that do not have a tab. Even if thatobject has a tab in another of the user's tab sets, the selected tab setpreferably does not change. Where a recent items list is used, the listis preferably not filtered by the selected tab set definition. If theuser clicks an item that does not have a tab displayed in the currenttab set, its detail page will be displayed but its tab will not bedisplayed.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a page (“All Tabs” Page) that supportsdifferent modes of viewing tabs according to one aspect. The mode isselected using the “View” dropdown list (picklist). In one mode, alltabs the user has access to see are displayed in alphabetical order byselecting “All Tabs”. In another mode, the tabs are grouped by tab set,in display order. As shown, the tabs for a standard salesforce.com tabset are shown in display order. The dropdown list allows the user topick which tab set to display.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a page that provides users with thecapability to fully customize each tab set, specifying which tabs go inwhich tab set, and the order of those tabs. The tabs listed in thedueling listboxes include all tabs that are not hidden for the user'sprofile. As shown in FIG. 6, the user may specify which tabs belong in aselected tab set using the “add” and “Remove” buttons. The user may alsorearrange the order in which those tabs should appear using the “up” and“Down” buttons. Users are preferably only be able to view those tabsthat they have permission to see, regardless of whether or not the tabis listed in a tab set.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a tab set list view page that allows a userto create and customize tab sets according to one aspect. Any user thathas the appropriate permissions may administer tab sets, e.g., create,delete, edit, etc. The list view preferably includes a visual tablecontaining an entry for each available tab set as shown. Each entryshows the tab set name and a description. As shown, the list view pagesupports a New action to create a new custom tab set by selecting a“New” button 125, an Edit action to edit a tab set by selecting an editselector 126, and a Delete action to delete a tab set by selecting adelete selector 127.

Selection of the New button 125 invokes a tab set creation “wizard”.FIG. 8 shows an example of a first wizard page according to one aspect.The wizard provides entry boxes for the user to enter the name (label)of the tab set as well as an optional description. The tab set name sizeis preferably limited, e.g., to a 40 character max length. Custom tabsets preferably cannot be named after standard tab sets provided by ahost system. For example, in the case where salesforce.com provides thehost system, “Salesforce”, “Supportforce” and “Customforce” (with orwithout “.com”) may not be used. The tab set name also preferably cannotcontain HTML characters.

FIG. 9 shows an example of a second wizard page that allows a user toprovide a custom logo, according to one aspect. The second page isinvoked when information in the first page has been entered and the userselects “next”. As shown in FIG. 9, the user may supply a logo for thenew tab set (by default, a host system logo such as the Customforce.comlogo is pre-populated). After an image has been identified or uploadedto the system, the image may be scaled down or clipped if it is largerthan a predetermined size (e.g., width: 235 pixels; height: 55 pixels).Scaling will maintain the original logo's aspect ratio. Although .gifimages are preferred, other image formats such as JPEG, Bitmap andothers may be used.

FIG. 10 shows an example of a third wizard page that allows a user tospecify which tabs belong in the new tab set, and the order they are tobe displayed, according to one aspect. The third page is invoked whenthe user selects “save” in the second page. As shown in FIG. 10, theuser may specify which tabs belong in this tab set using the “add” and“Remove” buttons. The user may also rearrange the order in which thosetabs should appear using the “up” and “Down” buttons. Users arepreferably only be able to view those tabs that they have permission tosee, regardless of whether or not the tab is listed in a tab set.

FIG. 11 shows an example of a fourth wizard page that allows a user tospecify the tab set's visibility, according to one aspect. The fourthpage is invoked when the user selects “save” in the third page. As shownin FIG. 11, the user may choose the user profiles for which the newcustom tab set will be available and to choose whether this custom tabset will be a default tab set. In one aspect, the user is able tospecify the tab set's visibility and default behavior for each UserProfile using a series of selectable checkboxes as shown.

FIG. 12 shows an example of a tab set detail page that shows the detailsfor an existing tab set. Detail information may include the label,description, logo, included tabs, “created by” information and “lastupdated” information. This page may be invoked, for example, byselecting the tab set label from the All Tabs page shown in FIG. 7. Asshown in FIG. 12, the user may also select the Edit action from thispage.

Selection of the Edit action, e.g., in FIG. 7 or FIG. 12, invokes awizard that is nearly identical to the wizard invoked by the New actionas described above. However, detail entering and logo selection stepsare not available for standard tab sets supplied by the host system,e.g., salesforce.com. Also, the last step of the wizard preferablyincludes a check box allowing the user to specify whether or not anychanges should override any user's personal customizations.

FIG. 13 shows an example of a page presented when a user selects theDelete action. When selected, the user is asked which other tab setshould be set as the default tab set for those users that had the tabset that is about to be deleted selected as the default tab set. Becausetab sets are effectively filters, they can be deleted without affectingthe profile tab visibility preferences. The order of tabs preferablyreverts to the current pre-tab set order scheme (i.e., standard tabs inhard-coded order, custom tabs in creation order).

According to one aspect, a user can also create custom tabs. FIG. 14shows an example of a tab list view page that allows a user to createand customize tabs according to one aspect. The list view shownpreferably includes a visual table containing an entry for eachavailable tab as shown. Each entry shows the tab name, a tab style and adescription. As shown, the list view page supports a New action tocreate a new custom tab by selecting a “New” button, an Edit action toedit an existing tab by selecting an edit selector, and a Delete actionto delete an existing tab by selecting a delete selector. Again,preferably only administrator level users should have access toadminister tabs. A user can create custom object tabs that referencecustom objects, and web tabs that allow users to embed external webapplications and content within a window.

Selection of the New button invokes a tab creation “wizard”. FIG. 15shows an example of a first tab creation wizard page according to oneaspect. This wizard provides entry boxes for the user to select the nameof an existing custom object (or select to create a new custom object)as well as a tab style and an optional tab description.

FIG. 16 shows an example of a second tab creation wizard page accordingto one aspect. The second page is invoked when information in the firstpage has been selected or entered and the user selects “next”. The usermay choose the user profiles for which the new custom tab will beavailable. In one aspect, the user is able to specify the tab'svisibility and default behavior for each User Profile using a series ofselectable checkboxes as shown.

According to one aspect, an additional last step is added to the wizardsfor the New action for both Custom Object Tabs and Web Tabs, as shown inFIG. 17. In this step, the user specifies in which tab sets the new tabis visible, and whether or not this new tab should be appended to users'existing personal customizations.

In one aspect, a new “Tab Set Settings” section is added to each Profileobject, listing all the tab sets and specifying, for the profile, whichusers may see the tab set, and which tab set should be selected thefirst time a user logs on (from then on, the tab set that is selectedwhen a user logs on is preferably the same as the tab set that wasselected when the user last logged off). As shown in the Profile Editpage of FIG. 19, visibility of a tab set is indicated by a check box(since users may have access to more than one tab set), but which tabset should be initially selected is specified by a radio button (theremay only be one default tab set). FIG. 18 shows an example of a ProfileDetail Page showing details of the selections as were made in theProfile Edit Page of FIG. 19.

Server Side Operations and Data Model Definitions

Logo

In one aspect, a logo part can be overridden by a user's tab setdefinition. An image provided by a user is preferably stored “indocument”, e.g., in a document storage module or facility that allowscustomers to store any document types they like. For example, the logois stored as a document, which is then referenced by the wizard usedwhen creating a new tab set. An HTML IMG tag is then automaticallygenerated which points to (via a URL) the logo in the document storefacility. It is preferred that a restriction be set on the rectangularsize of the image, otherwise a user adversely impact the UI by postinglarge images, e.g., huge .gif files. Therefore, in one aspect, dependingon the size of the image provided, the image may be clipped or scaled.For example, the example below will clip an image if it is bigger than55 pixels in height.

<div style=″position:absolute;height:55px; overflow:hidden; ″> <imgborder=0 src=”xxx.gif”> </div>

Tab Selector

In one aspect, the available values in a tab selector are defined ineach profile, with a default. Each user belongs to a profile, which isused to help simplify the administration of a group of users. Thedefault tab is used when user logs in to the system. If there is onlyone tab set in the user's profile, the user will not see the selector.In certain aspects, session cookies are used to maintain the currentselection of the tab selector 120 until the user logs out. Saving a userpreference into the database is another way to maintaining the user'sselection.

Multi-Browser Operation

Even if a user opens two (or more) browser windows to access the hostsystem, selection of the each tab selector (i.e., tab set selection) ispreferably maintained for each browser. In this case, it would bedesirable if each browser instance that shares the same session had itsown cookie. However, there is no easy way to generate a browser-instancespecific cookie id. In one aspect, to resolve this case, every selectionchange on a tab selector immediately calls an application server toreload. When tab set selection occurs, a session cookie is set and sentback to the server. The session cookie may then be set again to makesure the value is properly passed to the server.

User Preference

A user can edit each tab set they have permission to view, bycustomizing which tabs are in the tab set, as well as the order of thetabs. Tabs that a user can choose to display are preferably not limitedto the current tab set, but rather to all tabs that they can see whichare defined in a stored profile. Tabs that are marked as “Hidden” in auser's profile, however, are not selectable.

Design

In-Memory Data Structure

Since the tab set selector and tabs are referred by almost every page,in one aspect, tab set information is preferably cached in the relevantdatabase tables. Required information may include, for example, 1) eachtab set (w/ array of tabs), 2) Set of Tab Set (for constructing Tab SetSelector in Profile) and 3) Set of TabSet (subset of master tab set) foruser preference.

Tab Set

Each tab set contains a name, description, image and list of tabs, withno default. This information is not specific to a given user, but existsacross an entire organization or tenant, and is stored in a databasetable that is shared across an entire organization (but is not sharedacross organizations). There are two types of tab sets: standard tabsets and custom tab sets. Standard tab sets are defined by the hostsystem, e.g., salesforce.com, and users are limited in their ability tocustomize the standard tab sets.

Below is an example of useful Java class definitions and database tabledefinitions to define the Tab Set data structures:

class TabSetInfo implements Serializable String id; int type; // 0:Custom, >0: Standard String masterLabel; String documentId; String[ ]tabs;

In one aspect, the tab sets initially provided to a tenant are definedin a template, and therefore different tenants can start with differenttab sets, and those tab sets can be configured with different tabs.

In one aspect, each user is mapped to a “profile”, which determines thepermissions, including tab set visibility, for all the users in thatprofile. To manage this information, a relation is defined as a list ofTabSets with a default flag and is held in a database table:

ProfileInfo: String[ ] tabSetIds;  // array of TabSetInfo IDs. intdefaultTabSetIndex; // index in tabSetIds

Because users can also customize their tab sets, the user'scustomizations are stored in a database table in one aspect.

API Considerations

In addition to making tab sets available via a web browser, in certainaspects tab sets are also available via a Web Services (SOAP/HTTP) API,and can therefore be implemented via other client software, including anoffline browser, a wireless client, etc. When translated to Java, oneexample of a useful API is as follows:

public DescribeTabSetResult[ ] describeTabs( ) throws RemoteException,UnexpectedErrorFault;

Note that the result is an array of DescribeTabSetResult objects, whichare defined, when translated to Java, as follows:

public class DescribeTabSetResult implements java.io.Serializable {private java.lang.String label; private java.lang.String logoUrl;private boolean selected; private com.sforce.soap.partner.DescribeTab[ ]tabs; public DescribeTabSetResult( ) { } public java.lang.StringgetLabel( ) { return label; } public java.lang.String getLogoUrl( ) {return logoUrl; } public boolean isSelected( ) { return selected; }public com.sforce.soap.partner.DescribeTab[ ] getTabs( ) { return tabs;} public void setTabs(com.sforce.soap.partner.DescribeTab[ ] tabs) {this.tabs = tabs; } };

Finally, this class includes references to a list of DescribeTabobjects, which can be defined in Java as follows:

public class DescribeTab implements java.io.Serializable { privateboolean custom; private java.lang.String label; private java.lang.StringsobjectName; private java.lang.String url; public DescribeTab( ) { }public boolean isCustom( ) { return custom; } public java.lang.StringgetLabel( ) { return label; } public java.lang.String getSobjectName( ){ return sobjectName; } public java.lang.String getUrl( ) { return url;} };

While the invention has been described by way of example and in terms ofthe specific embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention isnot limited to the disclosed embodiments. To the contrary, it isintended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements aswould be apparent to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the scope ofthe appended claims should be accorded the broadest interpretation so asto encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements.

1. A computer-based method for providing an interface, comprising:providing, to an end user of a user system, a list of a plurality oftabs that are available for selection by a user, wherein the pluralityof tabs is selected from a group including tabs for accessing at leastone element of each of at least two applications; receiving, from theuser system, one or more of said plurality of tabs; and storing, as atleast a portion of the interface, at least one tabset definitiondefining a tabset corresponding to the one or more of said plurality oftabs.
 2. A computer-based method according to claim 1, wherein: at leastone of the tabs in the list of a plurality of tabs provides foraccessing an element of a first application; and at least one of thetabs in the list of a plurality of tabs provides for accessing anelement of a second application.
 3. A computer-based method according toclaim 1, wherein the list of a plurality of tabs is selected from agroup that further includes tabs for accessing one or more data objects.4. A computer-based method according to claim 3, wherein the data objectincludes a database object.
 5. A computer-based method according toclaim 4, wherein the database object is selected from a group includingtables, entities and objects.
 6. A computer-based method according toclaim 1, wherein one or more of the tabset and at least one of theplurality of tabs provides for switching between the applications.
 7. Acomputer-based method according to claim 1, wherein the applications areselected from a group including standard applications provided by amultiple-application host, and custom applications created by one ormore users of the multi-application host and shared with othermultiple-application host users.
 8. A computer-based method according toclaim 3, wherein the at least one of the data objects is selected from agroup including standard data objects provided by anmultiple-application host, and custom data objects created by one ormore users of the multi-application host and shared with othermultiple-application host users.
 9. A computer-based method according toclaim 8, wherein the custom data objects include standard data objectsthat are customized by a user.
 10. A computer-based method according toclaim 3, wherein one or more of the tabset and at least one of theplurality of tabs provides for switching between the one or more dataobjects.
 11. A computer-based method according to claim 1, furthercomprising defining, by respective ones of the user of a multipleapplication host, users that can see a corresponding tabset.
 12. Acomputer-based method according to claim 1, further comprising defining,by respective ones of a multiple application host and a tabset creatinguser, users that can see a corresponding tab when the interface ispresented.
 13. A computer-based method according to claim 3, furthercomprising: determining whether to provide access by a user to anapplications, an application element or a data object according to acapacity of a user system used by the user.
 14. A computer-based methodaccording to claim 13, further comprising determining the capacity ofthe user system according to a permission of the user system user.
 15. Acomputer-based system, comprising: means for providing, to an end userof a user system, a list of a plurality of tabs that are available forselection by a user, wherein the plurality of tabs is selected from agroup including tabs for accessing at least one element of each of atleast two applications; means for receiving, from the user system, oneor more of said plurality of tabs; and means for storing, as at least aportion of the interface, At least one tabset definition defining atabset corresponding to the one or more of said plurality of tabs.
 16. Acomputer-based system according to claim 15, wherein: at least one ofthe tabs in the list of a plurality of tabs provides for accessing anelement of a first application; and at least one of the tabs in the listof a plurality of tabs provides for accessing an element of a secondapplication.
 17. A computer-based system according to claim 15, whereinthe list of a plurality of tabs is selected from a group that furtherincludes tabs for accessing one or more data objects.
 18. Acomputer-based system according to claim 15, wherein the data objectincludes a database object.
 19. A computer-based system according toclaim 15, wherein one or more of the tabset and at least one of theplurality of tabs provides for switching between the applications.
 20. Acomputer-based system according to claim 18, wherein: the applicationsare selected from a group including standard applications provided by anmultiple-application host, and custom applications created by one ormore users of the multi-application host and shared with othermultiple-application host users; and the database objects are selectedfrom a group including standard database objects provided by anmultiple-application host, and custom database objects created by one ormore users of the multi-application host and shared with othermultiple-application host users.
 21. A computer readable storage mediumstoring program code for causing a computer to perform the steps of:providing, to an end user of a user system, a list of a plurality oftabs that are available for selection by a user, wherein the pluralityof tabs is selected from a group including tabs for accessing at leastone element of each of at least two applications; receiving, from theuser system, one or more of said plurality of tabs; and storing, as atleast a portion of the interface, At least one tabset definitiondefining a tabset corresponding to the one or more of said plurality oftabs.